Flight

This is the first chapter.. I have planned for about 7-8 chapters. Trying something different. Please tell me how I can improve. Thanks!

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FLIGHT


*** 1.
         It was spring when he arrived. He walked through the field that Dad was preparing to fly in. Dad wad in inventor you see and he was about to make the first flight ever... hopefully anyway. This was his twelfth try over the past few months. He had floated last time. I thought he flew but he said that he needs to have lift, to move up before it is flying for real. Dad had designed a craft with two long wings like a bird. They were fairly sturdy but still light and you could tilt them. I think he actually modeled them off an eagle. The Idea was that he was going to ride down a hill and get some speed up, then tilt the wings and hopefully fly. A whole bunch of people used to come and see him try, but now there are much less. Maybe about forty people.
         A man asked him why he kept trying. I’ll always remember what he said.
         “I envision us flying among the stars in the future, exploring what is out there. It’s what we were meant to do. Cross boundaries, do things we think we can’t even imagine. What better way to start than by flight. I’m just trying to take the first step. Reach for a dream.” 
         I always loved  thinking about that. Flying into the stars. They looked so far away. I looked at dad in awe. He had often talked to me about his projects as we worked on them together in the garage. He wondered why flight was so easy for birds yet seemingly impossible for humans. Perhaps we were meant to actually learn how to do these things, to discover them on our own. He smiled and ruffled my hair as he put the finishing touches on his latest flying machine, the one we were trying out today. I helped him by giving him the tools or holding things in place. “And you my little scientist,” he said, “I may not get to explore the stars in my life, but hopefully I will lead the way and perhaps... perhaps you may be able to live my dream.”
         It was hard to picture, Dad had explained there were balls of fire in space. All the spots I saw at night were huge balls. He said they were as big as our sun, even bigger. Which I found out was much bigger than our house. I thought it would be fun flying between them, but then wouldn’t it be really bright if there were that many suns. Ours was bright enough! He told me they were supposed to be really far apart. I tried to imagine it, as dad placed some balls around my room. A Yellow sun there and then a blue one at the end of my room, a spotted green one on the other end. I think I understood him.
         So here I was now, on the field waiting for Dads twelfth attempt at flying when I saw him. The man strolling right through the middle of the field towards Dad! Didn’t he know it was out of bounds. All of a sudden he was surrounded by people shouting at him as various men ran at him. He raised his hands and after the commotion, he was directed to where we were standing. He ducked under the barrier and stood next to me looking a little embarrassed.
         “That's OK,” I told him, “Dad is really a nice guy. They just didn’t know who you were and you were right in the way.”
         “Is that your father?” The man asked.
         “Yep, and he is gonna fly today.”
         “Do you really think so?”
         “Yep” I said full of confidence.
         The man looked at the craft, “You know, if he gets enough speed, I think it might actually work.”
         I looked at him again, he wasn’t much to look at, fair skin, light brown hair and thin. He wore the stuff people generally wore. Work pants and a flannel shirt. Leather shoes, dirty from walking through a field. He had a bag on his back. He looked down at me and I was immediately taken by his eyes. They were Brown, and green but happy and smart, like dads eyes.
         “What's your name?” He asked me?
         “Aerielle”
         “That's a beautiful name, and how old are you Arielle?”
         “I’m six, but I turn seven in a week.”
         The man laughed and we turned and watched dad make his attempt. He rolled down the hill and as his speed increased he rotated the wings. The wind lifted him and he began to float. He had already floated a few times before. Be he needed to lift before he counted flying a success. He got closer to the ground gaining even more speed and then rotated the wings again and he moved up away from the ground. In fact he was now three metres above the ground and flying! The wings held him aloft and he was moving further and further away. 
         The crowd cheered! Then suddenly, a strut broke on one of the wings. The craft tilted sideways and directly to the ground. It crashed and dad was flung out of the seat and landed roughly on the ground. The wings also broke with the sudden stop. He was about two hundred metres away. Everyone gasped and men started running to him. The man that was standing next to me did as well. He ran fast and was the first one to get there. Luckily dad didn’t break anything. He just had some scars and bruises. He called them “men-men-toes” after. I don’t know what toes had to do with it, cos they were just fine. I would have called them men-men-heads or arms. That's where he was mostly hurt. 
         After everything settled down Mum and Dad invited the man back to our house for helping. He thanked them. It looked like he was from out of town and needed a place to stay at for a few days. Dad liked the man because he knew about flying and so they asked him to stay. Over the few days he stayed, he spent much of his time talking to Dad about flying and the wings. He suggested some things for him to change and Dad liked the idea. I liked it when he talked to me though. I didn’t really have anyone else my age, or who talked about what I wanted to talk about when Dad was busy. But this man did.
         “So Arielle, what do you want to be when you grow up?” He asked me.
         “I want to be like Dad.” I said, “but I want to fly really high. Higher than anyone has gone before! All the way to the stars!”
         “Really?” He smiled.
         “Yep, Dad says there are heaps and heaps of stars and they are all bigger than even our house!”
         “That they are.”
         “So there wouldn’t be too much room to go between them would there?”
         He laughed. “Arielle, there is a lot of space between the stars. In fact most of what is up there is space. Sort of like what's between me and you. The stars and the planets go on for further than you could imagine and make up a small portion of what is actually out there.
         “Then I’m going to fly between them all the way to the end.” I said defiantly, a little annoyed that he laughed at me.
         He smiled, “and I’m sure you would too, but what would you do there?”
         I thought about it for a moment. “Well I’m sure there are people there, I think I would like to meet them and tell them that dad finally flew today!”
         “Well maybe you will Arielle, Maybe one day, you will. Well it’s getting late and I think I have kept you up long enough. So off you go to bed.”
         I winged a little but I was fairly tired and so when I finally got put into bed I fell straight to sleep. I dreamed about flying that night above the houses and seeing dad and mum, then flying even higher to until I could see the whole of earth. And then kept going until the earth was a spot. I saw a whole bunch of stars. Red ones and yellow ones, even white ones. The man had told me about them that afternoon. He said there weren't any spotted green stars. They were mostly red and yellow and white.
         The next day when I woke up, he was already packed and downstairs eating breakfast. I was a little sad, but I enjoyed his company for the morning. He stayed until lunch time. Finally it was time for him to go. Dad shook his hand and the man congratulated him and wished him the best for the future. He looked at me again and knelt down.
         “I have something for you. You know how you want to go to the stars? Well I have a painting of some stars. These ones are my very favorite.” He removed the wrapping and I looked at the painting. It was beautiful. the stars nearly shone off the canvas and the coloured clouds surrounding them made me want to cry. I hugged him and thanked him as did my Mum and Dad and then he left. He simply walked out of my life.